ETA : 4 fracking long months.
Fox put out a press release yesterday that pretty much revealed the entire premise for Season 6. Here it is in their words: “Season 5 concluded with a battered and bloodied Bauer captured by Chinese government agents and headed for points unknown. Season 6 picks up 20 months later. Wayne Palmer (DB Woodside), the strong-minded brother of the late president David Palmer, is now himself the president of the United States, while his sister, Sandra Palmer (Regina King), is a determined and powerful advocacy lawyer. After a series of horrific terrorist attacks, Palmer and his team of advisors, Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson) and Thomas Lennox (Peter MacNicol) — as well as CTU colleagues Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), Curtis Manning (Roger Cross) and Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) — begin an unthinkable, nail-biting day.” The spoilerific release also announced that James Cromwell has joined the cast as Jack’s estranged father, and Eddie Izzard will play a “villainous accomplice.”